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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Monitors Developments at Home, Overseas

Aired October 13, 2001 - 09:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: The commander in chief is at Camp David this weekend, monitoring both the war on terror and the anthrax investigation.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is there with him. Kelly, what's the latest?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, first, no real surprise on the part of the Bush administration that the Taliban are rejecting President Bush's latest offer. The offer, of course, he put forward Thursday night that if the Taliban turned over Osama bin Laden and complied with all the other demands of the United States, that the U.S. would reconsider its military campaign against Afghanistan.

An administration official, speaking to CNN earlier this morning, saying, quote, "The military actions will continue until the president's demands are met or our objectives are reached, whichever comes first."

Now, the sense is that this also was put out there in part to, of course, give the Taliban a second chance, but also to send a message to Arab and Muslim nations that President Bush is being fair, and again, would reconsider the military strikes if the Taliban changed its mind.

Now, again, though, no surprise, really, because the Bush administration believes the Taliban depends very, very much on Osama bin Laden and his associates. That is a message Vice President Cheney put forward quite forcefully in an interview with PBS Friday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, PBS)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we had in Afghanistan isn't state-supported terrorism. We had a terrorist- supported state, terrorists who came in, Osama bin Laden, lots of money, maybe $100 million to the Taliban directly, with training, with weapons, with troops to supplement their own forces with, and they in effect took over, if you will, a big part of Afghanistan.

So everything we do to take down that organization, to reduce their capability to provide him sanctuary, we think makes him more vulnerable. And I think ultimately will lead to his demise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And the vice president has spent a good part of the week at an undisclosed location out of concerns about having the president and the vice president in the same place. But the vice president was at the White House for some time on Friday, and he will participate in what is expected to be another video teleconference with the president, which he will convene from the presidential retreat at Camp David, again designed to go over the military developments as well as the latest on the investigations into the cases of anthrax, and now one case in New York, and of course three cases in Florida, President Bush seen, we saw him leaving for Camp David Friday afternoon, and before he left he did talk about this latest case of anthrax in New York.

He said it is a cause for concern, but he said the administration is responding very rapidly and doing everything it possibly can.

And Jeanne, you know, we have seen the president really kind of put this message forward almost every day, certainly Thursday night during his news conference, after the FBI put out an alert that said based some information, although not specific, that there could be terrorist attacks in the United States or against American interest overseas over the next several days, the president's message continuing to be that Americans should be on alert, should be vigilant, but should still try to go about their normal lives, otherwise, as we heard the president say yesterday, he says the terrorists will then be victorious -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kelly, do we think he'll hammer on that very theme in his radio address today?

WALLACE: We certainly do. We expect the president to touch on a couple of themes, one, touching base on the fact that Americans feel somewhat uneasy and are concerned, and again, he will say that the government is taking every possible precaution, but that Americans should also be on alert.

Also likely to see him talk a bit about the humanitarian effort and how he has unveiled Thursday night, we saw him do this, calling on American kids to send a dollar to the White House to help feed the children of Afghanistan, and also likely to hear the president talk about the latest on the military campaign against Afghanistan, his assessment of where the administration is -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kelly Wallace at Camp David, thanks.

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